A Lover's Mercy

A Lover's Mercy is a page-turner of a book and an entertaining read. I only wish I knew it was a sequel.

Beautifully written and a real page-turner. I fell in love with this story and the characters. Couldn't put it down and was so invested into it. Hope it gets the hype it deserves upon release.

This is an interesting story, but I didn't realize when I requested it that it was actually a direct sequel to another book in this series so I did feel like I was missing things a lot of the time. You can definitely piece together the big picture details of book from context clues, but I feel like I would have probably enjoyed this book more if I had read the previous one. Still, the world building seems interesting from what I could make out here, and I liked the general plot. Also who doesn't love lesbian superheroes? I would recommend this book but don't be like me, make sure you read the story in order!

Representation matters, so I really wish I liked this book - which features lots of non-white characters and has a queer couple at its heart - more than I did. Unfortunately I found the narrator quite unlikable and wasn't compelled by the plot. Mind you, the narrator didn't seem to care about the plot either, showing a distinct lack of curiosity or proactive engagement toward the events going on around her..

I thought from the cover of this book that it was a graphic novel which was the initial reason that I requested to read and review this, but I was wrong about that. I am so glad that I accidentally picked this book because it was fantastic! I didn't know that it was the fifth and final book in a series when I picked it up and honestly for the most part I couldn't tell. I will one hundred percent be going back to read the other four books in this series though and I can't wait to do that. I started reading this around 10 at night after work one day fully intending only to read a few chapters just to get started and read until 2:30am. I didn't want to stop reading but I needed to get *some* sleep.

I really liked this book for multiple reasons. The story was fantastic. I felt like I was reading an amazing movie with badass female characters and a fast paced plot. The characters felt like they were fleshed out really good and they all were fully formed people with plenty of flaws. There was no part of this book that I skimmed or skipped over because I really wanted to read every little bit of it. I may have gotten a tad teary eyed when it ended. I fully wish that Mai and Xochitl were real people so that I could hang out with them (although I'm pretty sure Xochitl would terrify me at first). I would highly, highly recommend this book. If you are a fan of X-Men or superhero type books then I think this would be right up your alley. If I could give it higher than five stars I 100% would.

I'm actually a bit surprised, because fantasy isn't normally my favorite genre, but I really enjoyed this one! Even more so than the first in the set, Power of Mercy. If you're thinking about picking this one up, I highly suggest that you read Power of Mercy first though, since there's a LOT that you'd miss if you skipped it. You don't need to read all the books in the Superheroine Collection to understand, but don't skip Power or you'll really miss out on greatness.

All in all, I enjoyed the change to Xochitl's POV for this installment, and thought it was a well done second book in the set. Will I read it again? No, but again, I'm not a huge fantasy fan. I have a feeling that others who enjoy the genre more will really love this one. For me, 3.75 stars.

One of the coolest things about this series is that Ylva has a Kickstarter going to turn this into a graphic comic in honor of Apr 28th's National Superhero's Day. I'll be donating, and hope you can help support them by going here too - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ylva-publishing/the-power-of-mercy

**Many thanks to Ylva for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.**